The Forgotten Whisper
by ravenmasteroftele
Summary: When Robin decides to remodel Titan’s Tower, everyone is ecstatic. That is, until something begin to attack them from within the tower itself. This time, the Titan's may not be able to escape alive. BBRAE, RobStar
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans. 

-  
Chapter 1: There are days when...  
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"This is..so strange..."

Raven Roth stood high up--high on the roof of Titans Tower. Everything was, indeed, strange about this morning. Everything from the giant sun kissed orange rolling into the sky, to the giant roaring wing the cut through the city like a giant knife held a certain air about it: evil.

There was a sort of tingling up her spine, one that she was certain could not have been apart of her imagination. But what could be the cause? The last time she felt something this strong was when her father...No, she wouldn't--couldn't--believe it.

_Though if it wasn't her father..._

Even when the sun touched the sky as its afternoon fullest she continued to sit, feet dangling over the side of the giant tower, deep in thought. She didn't even feel the hours slip away from her like water in a cupped hand.

"Raven?"

She jumped and scolded herself inwardly. A purple strand of hair fell into her darkened eyes as she swiveled around, her eyes searching. Robin stood full, his hair sleek and shiny, outfitted in his famous suit: red, green, and yellow.

"Yes," She pulled up her hood, ashamed. Her insides were simmering with venomous emotions that not even she could silence. "What is it?"

"You've been down here for..." He stood deep in thought for a moment. "I think four hours now. Do you have something you want to talk-"

Raven pulled the hood tighter around her face. "No."

"Oh."

Somehow, despite the malicious wind eating at her face and hair, his gel streaked locks remained completely untarnished by the howling wind. As solid as a giant boulder of crystal, his hair remained strong.

Raven shook her head, "I just...need to think about something, that's all."

A lie of sorts, though she doubted it mattered.

"I-"

When he reached to pat her shoulder, she stood abruptly, dancing away. Her premonitions was aroused to such a full that it felt like her whole body was burning, and she didn't want to have one itsy bitsy little thing throw her over the edge. What she needed right now was silence--maybe some tea as well, though she even doubted its power as of now.

"I'm going to my room. With the tail flip of her hood, she stalked inside, her cloak dangling behind her.

The tower was the same as ever: many, many doors that were on the most part motion activated(aside from their rooms, which were kept under the lock and key by the given room owner). The floor were soft, the ceilings high, and the place so full of electronics that it would make a normal technician cry.

Raven sighed, running her fingers through her hair--here it came, another painful tingle. What was going to happen? She knew that she couldn't put off warning the team any longer. If something was going to happen today, they should know.

"Hey, Rae!"

_Only one person in the whole tower dared to call her that._

"**_What Beast Boy?"_** She sighed, running her fingers through her hair. "And don't call me Rae."

Beast Boy had grown up in the past three years in the tower, and he finally reached a height that he found _**"manly**_." The _what used to be small_ form changer was now quickly approaching six feet in height, which would explain his large feet as a teenager. Now, along with his deep voice, he seemed to think that he could call her whatever the heck he wanted to.

"Ah Raven, what's the matter!?" Beast Boy leaned over her, and she growled out of the back of her throat. "Seems like you're a little bit more...gloomy then usual."

"And what's that supposed to mean!?"

The cockiness in him annoyed her non-stop, and she had to admit the fact that what he said plucked a nerve. Just because he grew didn't mean that he had mentally matured in the slightest bit. In fact, the spurt seemed to have decreased his mental aptitude in age.

"Nothing, Rae." Beast Boy smirked, leaning against her bedroom door. "What cha doing?"

"Going to my room." She gave him a bitter look. "Now, if you would be so kind as to let me pass..."

"And what if I'm not so kind as to-"

Raven felt her self-control spiral. Of all days for him to act like a complete prick, it had to be today! "Beast Boy, I am giving you one warning! Get off my door right now or else I'm going to send you flying into the ocean--and it won't be through a door or window."

"Really?" His eyebrow rose a few inches. "Cause I don't-"

"Beast Boy, I'm warning you!" She raised her hand. "**_BACK OFF_**!"

And that was when her door caved in. Her powers, spiraling out of control by her latest premonition attack, flung out of control and completely collapsed the door. That poor metal thing didn't know what hit it, and, frankly, neither did Beast Boy.

"OUCH!" He lay sprawled on the floor, his eyes in a daze.

Her room was dark, the only light spilling in came from the door. That was enough light to let her get the gist of what was written on her wall:

**_TOO LATE_**

She stared at the message that was written in large amounts of florescent greenpaint, and ran flicked her hood back over her eyes. From the amount of training she had from meditating, it was easy to slip off into her own little world--even then, when everything seemed dark.

"Aren't you going to help me up!?" Beast Boy teetered onto his butt. "God, after what you just did to-UM, Rae?"

He slowly tuned around and scanned the room, realizing what was written on the wall. His eyes darted back and forth: Raven, to the wall; Raven, to the wall. His lips tightened over his fang that was still out the side of his mouth.

"We should go get Robin." She said quietly.

"Yeah."

He stood up, shaking himself off. With that, he patted her shoulder.

"What are you doing?"

"Umm, comforting you?" Beast Boy said hopefully.

She rolled her eyes, "Just go get Robin, okay? I'll go look around and see if anything was stolen."

"Kay, Rae!"

"I'm not-" But he was already gone, circling the nearest corner with a bounce in step. So much for that!

She looked quietly around the room, looking from one place to another: books were untouched, as were her various magic assortments. Her expensive antiques were tucked away in her dresser drawer. The only thing that had been moved at all was her bed spread, and that was the strangest of all...

This morning, her head hadn't been made when she went to the roof. Now, however, it was neatly tucked in at the corners--so neatly, that she would have thought that it would have been done by her own careful hands.

"Raven?" Starfire burst into the room, her hair a flailing trail of fire. "I have heard that your has become the sabotaged."

"Not sabotaged exactly." Raven peered around the corners of the room, drawing her hood tighter around herself.

Her room, her sanctuary, always seemed so safe to her before. There was nothing there that could ever reach her--not Beast Boy with his comments, nor any harshness of the world. It had been silly to think that these simple walls could ever keep her truly safe.

The walls certainly had not been able to keep her away from the wrath of her father, nor the attack of Malchior. Yet, somehow, the place itself seemed to hold some kind of heavenliness to her...A heavenliness that was now and forever gone.

"Has something been taken?" Starfire flicked her hand over to the light, only to discover that it was not working. With a flick of her hand, the world was illuminated by a glowing green ball of light on her hand. "The light has ceased to function."

"No." Nothing but a feeling of safety.

Robin emerged soon after, trailed by both Cyborg and Beast Boy. "Heard something happened to your-what the?"

The still wet glowing green paint had begun to ooze down the wall, dribbling onto the carpet. It looked and smelled disgusting. Raven wrinkled her nose, her eyes following every single fall of the liquid. So much for her room being private┘.

"Nothing was stolen." Raven murmured. "But my bed was...Well, somebody _**made**_ it."

Robin raised his eyebrow, "Somebody **_made_** your bed?"

"Yes." With that, she began to tug at her bed sheets. They feel quietly to the floor, revealing nothing but the black bed spread underneath. "This morning when I went up to the roof it was undone--completely undone."

"You're sure?"

Raven rolled her eyes. "Positive."

⌠Great.■ Beast Boy raised his arms. "**_OHH_**, scary Rae. Attack of the _**bed maker**_! **_OHHHH-OUCH_**! Cyborg what was that for?"

Cyborg and Starfire were the only Titan's that hadn't grown in these past years. Though Raven grew in height a good three inches and grew slightly more curved, Starfire remained the same as she always was: tall, thin and cheery.

Though Cyborg's mechanical party kept him from growing, he mentally matured enough to make up for it. He would always be the cheery, loving friend that they cared so much about, but now he was more adult then anyone could have imagined--even with BB and his much loved tofu.

Now Robin had grown to the near height of Cyborg. (If the spikes of his hair counted, then he indeed was almost identical in height with his robotic friend) That left Raven, to her dismay, to remain the shortest of the Titans.

"Knock it off, B." Cyborg grumbled out of the corner of his mouth. "Raven, better check the bed, just to make sure."

And so they did. They pulled apart the sheets, checked between the mattress and the frame, and peered beneath the beds depths--nothing. Somebody had just made the bed!

"Great." Raven tightened her hood across her face. "What the heck would a villain want with my bed."

Beast Boy raised his eye brow again. "I can think of a few-OUCH!"

"B! **_Stop it."_** Cyborg shook his head.

"I was just joking around!" Beast Boy yelled. "No need to break my ribs were your elbows, man!"

"Both of you **_be quiet_**." Robin growled. "Raven, are you okay."

"Fine." She shrugged.

"Friends," Starfire sat at the edge of the bed, her face hidden by the long tendrils of her long, fire-like red hair. "What do you think this means?"

"Truthfully," Robin said sheepishly. "Probably just a very obsessed fan."

"**_OOOH_**, Rae..."

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When Raven lay down in bed that night, her purple hair spread out over the pillow, she couldn't seem to lie down in the right position. Everything felt **_WRONG_** in here now. Someone had been in here, touching her stuff, and she felt from the way the room made her tingle all over that there hadn't been a humorous intent.

She slammed her hand down on her book. "This was not an obsessed fan, I can feel it!"

First the way she felt this morning and now this...The bad guys had all died down for the past couple of months--seriously. It could have been a good three weeks since they had a call last, and that was only for some small town bank robbery. Nothing to really be remotely frightened about.

There was a soft knock outside her door, and she peered up and over her book. Should she answer it? Definitely she wasn't in the room to talk right now. In fact, she wasn't in the mood to do much of anything.

"Rae?"

_**Great**_. Beast Boy, the last person she wanted to see right now.

She sat up quietly, wrapping her cloak around her leotard. It fell gracefully about her frame, the hood hiding her face between her two dark, inquisitive eyes. When she opened the door, two dark green eyes peered at her through the door jam.

She snapped, "**_What_**?"

"I was just...you know...checking to make sure that you were okay."

"I'm fine."

When she went to shut the door, Beast Boy's fingers snapped into action, wrapping around the frame. Of course, even his tough fingers could take it when a metal door was slammed onto his finger tips.

With a squeal of "**_OUCH_**," he lurched backwards.

_For the second time today, she just clobbered him... _Raven couldn't believe it!

"Beast Boy." She hadn't meant to hurt him this time--not at all. And when she saw him sprawled on the floor like a giant place may, she gave a mighty sigh, "You okay?"

"How can you ask that?" He held up his hand, revealing swollen, crooked fingers. "I think every bone in my hand is broken."

Indeed, his fingers were pointing every which way--most of which, were directions fingers were never meant to go. The tip of his index finger was laying pathetically on the back of the rest of his fingers--poor guy, that can't have felt pleasant.

"OUCH!"

"Come here, Beast Boy!" She sighed, grabbing his unharmed hand and hauling him to his feet. "In here."

The light, thanks to Cyborg, was now working again. The paint was, luckily, easy to remove. Looks like whoever it was that had decided to pay her a little visit hadn't meant anything all to seriously┘.At least, that was all according to Robin.

"Your not going to throw me out a window," Beast Boy pouted. "Are you?"

"Don't be ridiculous." She rolled her eyes. "Give me your hand Beast Boy."

With a whimper, he held out his damaged paw. Raven slowly touched it, the blue sparks of healing running up her own arm and taking care of the damage. One by one, the energy popped the bones back into the sockets, revealing a undamaged hand. Thank goodness for her powers, or else that would have put Beast Boy out of action for some time.

"Good as new." He shook his hand, just in case. "It even feels better then it did before you healed me! Thanks Rae."

She sighed, deciding not to pick a fight about the name right now. There was too much on her mind--too much to even allow herself to talk to Beast Boy very long. Not that it would last anyway. Conversations that lasted more then five minutes had a tendency to end up in raging fights.

"What did you want to talk to me about?" She crossed her arms, switching positions until she was leaning back.

"I wanted to check on you..." Beast Boy shrugged. "You haven't been out of your room since this morning...We were all kind of worried."

"You shouldn't have been..." Raven was touched--honestly. Sometimes she wondered about whether or not they noticed she was even there. "I'm fine. Probably just some crazed fan that got me confused with Starfire."

"Do you honestly believe that?" Beast Boy gave her a long look.

"No, I don't." Why was she telling him this?

"Knew it." Beast Boy said triumphantly, beating the air as if it was a giant punching bag. "Robin was too obsessed with the latest news from the Titans East to notic..."

And she hadn't been informed about this!? "Titans East?"

"Guess there's a villain running amuck that fits Slade's description." Beast Boy flopped ungracefully onto her bed, and Raven wrinkled her nose. So this was what she got for letting him in! He was going to stay in her room for forever. "Course, that drives Robin absolutely mad."

"Do you think-"

"Nah, can't be him." He sighed. "The crime is just too un-slade like. Sounds like its just a copy cat."

"Wow, Beast Boy." Raven smirked. "I think this is the longest that you've ever talked while remaining serious--for a good while there, I thought you were somebody else."

Beast Boy shrugged, "**_Hah hah_**."

She sat at the side of the bed and studied the place where the words had been. It really was weird, that feeling that was crawling up and down her spine. It was like snake slithering down the back of her leotard.

"Beast Boy?"

He sat up, "Hmm?"

"Do you-**_no, never mind_**."

Then she was silent for a good thirty minutes, deep in her own thoughts. It wasn't until she heard a deep snore that she realized that Beast Boy had fallen asleep, sprawled across her bed, face smack down in the middle of her pillow. A line of drool had begun to dribble down his cheek as she watched.

"Great..." Raven rolled her eyes.

"Beast Boy, this isn't funny." She poked him and he moaned. "**_BEAST BOY_**!"

And a small smile began to form on his face...

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**_No Flaming Please!_**


	2. Chapter 2

**_Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans._**

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Raven sat quietly on the couch, her head perched on her hand, head stuck firmly in her book. Ah, the simple joys of being alone. It had been a long time--too long--since she had had the whole place to her self.

With her head in her hands, she slowly drifted between sleep and consciousness. Her dreams were a twisted land, nothing falling into her reality at the slightest--it was during this dozing that she heard the doors open and the sound of loud talking ensued.

She looked up from her book, blinking, "What are you doing?"

They had in their hands large amount of paints, cleaner, and (of course) zillions of grocery bags. Raven blinked again, taking in the green pain in Beast Boy's hand. _What on earth?..._

"Well," Cyborg rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

"While we were out for pizza," Beast Boy flung himself over the back of the couch and plopped down next to her. "We decided that we needed to kick the security of this place up a notch--you know, after..."

Cyborg growled, "**SHHH!"**

Raven pulled her hood over her head again. "And that involves green pain **HOW**?"

"Well, since my rooms the smallest..."

"We're going to be expanding Beast Boy's room just a bit." Robin said, balancing a bunch of groceries in the crook of his arm. "And mine too. We'll also be fixing up the basement and making it a larger space for Cyborg to do maintenance."

"**BOOYA!"**

Raven sighed. This was going to mean noise and lots of it. "And what **exactly** are you two going to be doing during all this time?"

She had to admit that she was a little offended...So what if she wasn't there for dinner!? She was apart of this team, and she should have been considered during the decision making. Still, she kept her mouth shut. **Whatever**. Just as long as it didn't affect **her** room, it wasn't going to be that big of a deal.

"Well..." Robin shrugged sheepishly. "I kind of figured that Beast Boy and I will set up camp on the couch until our rooms are fixed--that should save us the of moving into a hotel."

Beast Boy and Cyborg looked at each other, screeching in unison. "**DUDE!"**

"I don't like the sound of that." Raven rolled her eyes.

Beast Boy began, "**Total insomniac sleepover party**!"

"Yeah," Cyborg cheered. "For like three weeks straight. Come on Raven, you'll enjoy it! We can all stay out here with BB. And Robin."

"And what?" Raven stood up, tucking a book under her arm. "Contemplate throwing all of you off the roof as you throw popcorn at each other for 168 hours straight. I **definitely **don't think so."

"Oh, glorious." Starfire clapped her hand, a big smile on her face. "We shall watch movies, and eat popcorn...And, play Snargonorf!"

"**SNARGONORF?"**

Raven took this as her cue to leave. Walking down the hall, she heaved another sigh as she tucked the book under her arm. This didn't feel right to her somehow--in fact, it felt so wrong that she felt as if she had a leprechaun dancing up and down her spine. Not even the disappearance of the words on her wall could calm her super sensitive senses down.

Raven rubbed her eyebrow. "This is not going to end well..."

From the commons, she could hear the other Titan's let out squeals of joy. She listened to them and felt something crawl out of the pit of her stomach--the familiar illness that came out of being different. The sickness of premonition as it came back to haunt her.

_If we can get through this..._

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With the construction beginning the next day, Raven felt whatever hope she had that her feelings would disappear vanish. With the coming of the workers, (a few friends of Cyborg's from a local mechanics shop) she felt everything get worse. It was almost to the point of her wanting to stick her head in the toilette and throwing up.

Now, as she stood in the kitchen, a cup of steaming tea in her hand, she looked up and saw Robin standing nearby. He was a lone, thank God. She didn't want to do this when there was other people around--especially Beast Boy.

_**"Robin**_?"

He looked up from his newspaper, a curious look on his face.

"Yes, Raven?" His face quickly switched from serious to concerned. "You're looking a little sick. Are you alright!?"

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about..."

"Yeah."

Raven straightened up and pulled down her hood. It usually had a more heavy affect on friends if her hood was down. "Well, I don't think all this is such a good idea. Ever since yesterday I've been having these feelings about the reconstruction...**bad** feelings."

"This is about what happened the other day, isn't it?" Robin raised an eyebrow, placing his newspaper down on the counter completely now. Once again, the believer in logic. "Look, just because of what happened-"

"Robin, listen to me." Raven growled. "You know me--I don't shed my warnings often. There is something not right about this."

"And what harm is reconstruction going to do, Raven?"

"I...don't know." She should have known better. When it came to Robin, he believed mostly in solid hard proof. The only exception that was ever usually made was in Slade. "But something is not right, Robin."

"Just because your-"

The nearest vase exploded. "**FINE!"**

"You're really serious about this." Robin's eyes were so wide with shock that Raven could have fit two whole bowling balls in his sockets. "I mean really, **really** serious. Are you sure that you-"

"**EVERYBODY!"** The was a howl as the door to the commons was opened, and Beast Boy clambered through from the other side. He was covered head to foot in green paint, his two eyes glittering with so much excitement that it almost made her feel guilty. "I have officially decided that I **LOVE** the color green."

Slightly annoyed, Raven balanced on one of her hips. "Looks as if you got more on yourself then you did on the wall."

"**HARDY HAR HAR!"** Beast Boy was still smiling. "But I'll have you know that I did a very good job at painting, right Cyborg?"

"Whatever you say, B."

Robin smirked, Raven scratched at an invisible itch in her arm, and Cyborg was too busy digging through the fridge looking for hamburgers to notice. Maybe this would be the best time to sneak out...

"**FRIENDS!"** Starfire burst in, her hair fluttering in a invisible breeze. "I have found the simple most amazing game in the world! You must try, you-"

Raven was out of the room and down the nearest hall before their eyes even had the ability to register what happened. The last time Starfire wanted to play a '**game'**, she had Beast Boy dressed up in a dress and full make up. If she ever let that happen to herself it would be her dying day.

There was the sound of distant laughter as she walked down the hallway, and she peered into the garage where the workers had already begun tearing down the wall. Four men and a woman stared up at her with goofy eyes, sweat drifting down their face.

Two of the men were shirtless, waterfalls of sweat coasting down their hot sweaty backs. The others had t-shirts on but had sweat stains all over their clothes. She was on the verge of heading in the opposite direction when one of the men rubbed his hands on his pants and offered her his hand.

"I'm Mick--not Mike. I hate it when people call me Mike."

"Oh." She felt herself flush. "Raven--Raven Roth."

"How can we not know?" The woman wandered over now.

She was beautiful and Hispanic with sweaty ringlet curls around her face. The others just nodded at her as if she was a shadow, not really caring that the owner of the house was standing right here acknowledging them.

Raven nodded towards the sweat stains. "You must be working hard--**too hard**. Cyborg isn't paying you for this, you know."

"We owe you guys a favor." He wiped his hands on his dirty pant again--like that would help much. "Saved my kid's life years back--been grateful ever since."

"Oh." She felt a blush creep up her cheeks again.

"Recently divorced to, if you're inter--"

"**STOP IT**!" The Hispanic lady smiled and said, "You're not interested in him, are you?"

"**No."**

She growled, hands on hips. "**SEE**. Now stop bugging the customers."

"So...Raven..." He looked at her lightly, his eyes crinkling happily around the edges. His eyes were two deep swimming pools, deep and thoughtful. "You're a big bad superhero, huh? Want to see something scary?"

_Scary? Here, in Titan's Tower?_

His hair was cut in a bowl cut, his face was tight and slightly wrinkled. Though he was one of the sweaty men with his shirt off, she found herself not repulsed. She pulled her hood up to shield her face, her mouth hidden as she surveyed them. Already she had given too much away.

"Oh, not **that** again." The Hispanic woman murmured.

"Come on." He held out his hand, but instead of taking it, she took a step further away. "I won't bite, and neither will what I'm going to show you--**promise**."

And though followed him, she made sure to keep her distance. She didn't like how much she had given away of her personality in the couple of minutes she had stood there. It just wasn't right for somebody like her...

"So..." Raven took a step into the backroom.

"This was your basement, right?" He took a step into a room that she didn't know that they had, and in the middle of the room was a hole--a crawl space if you will. She had to bend down to get in there. "Turns out the foundation of this place--the foundation that was the bottom of the house that was here before Titan's Tower--never removed this part of the building."

Raven blinked in surprise--this even had her. "So there were more rooms here all the time? And we never noticed."

"Well, the stairwell was built underneath the wall of the garage. This place here--this crawl space," He pointed towards the small hole that was dark and deep and musty, "Is indeed a '**UNKNOWN**' basement. Even Cyborg and the other workers didn't know about it--until now, that is."

It was dark and musty. Even peering down into its depths was a step worse then what she felt when facing down a villain--it just seemed so evil. It wasn't like a bad guy that was simply intoxicated with his greed, with his insanity. This was the purest for hatred, of malice, that she ever felt.

And then she walked over to the hole and peered down. What on earth was down there? Something inside her, her illogical half, wanted to go down there. She was a super hero, so why couldn't she stand to crawl down there?

She put her foot in and lowered herself down.

**"Wait."** He cried in panic. "You can't go down there! It's..."

But it was already too late. Here she was, standing in the deepest form of the dark, surrounded by nothingness. She groped the air around her, feeling nothing but cobwebs that had begun to populate after years of nonuse.

Her fingers curled over the air in the darkness, and she felt something light caress her fingertips. She gasped, pulling back her hand--a spider, fine and graceful as a dance, scuttled across her fingertips. With that, she shook her hand lightly, her eyes searching--nothing was here. Nothing that was important anyway.

"**RAVEN!"** She heard a female's voice**. "RAVEN**, are you okay down there!?"

"Yes." She looked up into the small whole that she slipped into. "I'm down here...And I'm absolutely fine."

To the very left was a corridor--a corridor long and deep. She could see the rafters where the unfinished part of the basement must have been. Cob webs danced across her vision like that of the old haunted houses. She reached out her hand again, this time more hesitantly.

Though she could see nothing, something drew her in--closer and closer she went to the source of the sound. There was nothing but darkness around her. A world so deep and dark that she thought that she would be okay. And then she took one step, and then another step.

The voices of her friends and workers seemed so far away now, so distant. There was something back there, and she knew it.

In front of her eyes, something flickered. Something solid and black, like a giant monstrous shadow. Her spine began to crawl, completely and utterly. It felt as if her spinal column had twisted itself until it became a giant spider, twisting and turning.

"Hello." She whispered. "Is there...anyone there?"

From beside her, something fell--a old wooden rafter?

She looked for the source of the sound, a source for the thing that fell. Could she be imagining the heavy breathing that was in her here? Could she be imagining the sense of heaviness she felt all around? Could she be imagining the cobwebs that seemed to have filled her own chest from where she stood at this very second...

If she didn't imagine those things, then what?

**"Rae**?"

She looked up to the sound of Beast Boy's voice, but she ignored it. This was far to important for her to be sidetracked during something like this. There was a intruder in their house--a intruder in Titan's Tower. And this very person happened to be clanking around beside her right now.

"Look." Raven put down her hood again--non-threatening behavior. "If you let this go right now, we'll not attack you--but I must warn you that I..."

There was the sound of creaking of the floorboards, the heavy _'thud, thud'_ of footsteps against the ground. If someone had accused her of being frightened right then, she would have denied it--and that denial would have been completely and utterly a lie.

"Azirath, Metrion, Zinthos!" She raised up her hand in threat, but there was nothing she could see to attack--this was an enemy of the deadliest kind.

She felt something brush against the back of neck--a gentle caress on the back of her neck like cloth on skin, gently rubbing the surface so that all the nerves beneath were completely exposed. Every last hair on the back of her neck began to stand up on end, her body shuddering with fear.

Her heart was pounding so hard in her chest that she could swear the sound of it was echoing against the walls┘.

"Come out now." _'Thud, thud, thud, thud_.' **"AZIRATH, METRION**-"

"Rae!?"

She tried to ignore her own heart beat as she felt herself shudder again--something from behind her was touching her. There were hands on her hips: heavy, rough hands. The kind of hands that belonged to a worker men...or a registered murderer.

But when she jerked around, nobody was there.

"**Hello?"**

There was the soft sound of laughter in her ear, as if somebody was standing right behind her--somebody that she couldn't see. And when she looked down at the floor, directly beneath her, was a pile of yellowing, decaying bones--bones that looked like they belonged to human; bones that looked as though the person who had used them was curled up in massive pain.

And then, for the first time in a long time, she screamed--hollering as watched the dirt around her began to cave in and the rafters began to crumble...  
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**_No Flaming Please!_**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans.**

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She felt strong arms rap around her, and she squirmed as she was dragged up and out of the basement. From down below, she could hear the crackling of the wood from the weight of the sand and the world around it began to crumble. Certainly, the crease was small, the wood itself only splintering slightly, but it was enough to send a whole section of the basement crumbling downward.

"Rae," Beast Boy had her by the shoulders, her face turned towards her. "What the hell were you doing!?"

"But..." She looked down into the crawl space. "How did you?..."

"Mick, gave me the heads up--ran up to me after he saw what you were doing." This had to be the first time that she ever saw Beast Boy truly that angry. His eyes were wide with some emotion that she couldn't place--something unknown. "And I ran down here as fast as I could."

Then she remembered the dark shadow, and she peered down into the depths again. Beast Boy wasn't the boss of her--she could go down there if she wanted to...But, somehow, she felt as though she would never be safe in Titan's tower again.

"Beast Boy?..."

"Hmm." He growled, his bottom lips quivering with emotion. "What is it, Rae?"

"Promise me that you won't go into that place alone."

"Huh?" Beast Boy looked at her questionably. "What is **WRONG** with you? You're acting creepy! Do you have a** fever** or something!?"

**"LET ME BE!"** She shook him off, shaking her purple head as she stood up and walked away. Her hair tumbled over into her deep eyes, and she brushed everyone away as they tried to corner.

"**HEY**." Mick saw her coming, and he waved his hand around wildly. "Hey."

She stopped short, crossing her arms in annoyance. "Yes."

"What did you see down there?" He asked quietly, raking his fingers through his short hair. His two once flirtatious eyes were filled with concern--a emotion that she hated when it came to her. "I mean, you were talking to something right?"

And she did think of the**...THING**. If there really even was a thing. There had been something there right? Was she losing her touch? She swore that she had **SEEN** something dance across her vision, but yet in a basement like that it could have merely been shadows...

But, shadows? Something had been thrown at her**...OR** something like that. She had felt something touch her the whole time**. NO** shadow could cause the sensation of someone tickling the back of her neck as that place had.

"Rae, you-"

Then again, there had been many, many cobwebs down in that place. She could have mistaken a touch of darkness for the feelings of cobwebs brushing the back of her neck. Yes, that had to have been it: cobwebs, just cobwebs.

"-look a little bit shaken up."

Raven stared over her should--never, ever again did she want to head down into that thing┘.But yet, the sheer power of its evil took her breath away. It groped her, overpowering her with its untouchable darkness. Darkness that could drag her farther and farther away from where she wanted to be.

**"RAVEN!"**

Raven shook her head, "What, Beast Boy!? Your yelling will have shot my hearing straight to Hades!"

Beast Boy pouted, "You weren't listening to me."

"Well," She shook her head. "You've certainly got my attention now. What did you want!?"

"It's not worth it now..."

"Fine." Like she cared about that anyway...

With that, she waltzed up the stairs, her feet hitting the steps. But, somehow, she couldn't shake the feeling that somebody was looking at her. Somebody that wasn't Beast Boy. And was it just her, or had the air around her just started to weight ten pounds?

When she rounded the corner into the empty hall, she shuddered, peering over her shoulder every couple of steps. The hairs on the back of her neck were acting as pins, standing straight up--what in the world?...

**"Beast Boy?"**

She peered over her shoulder, but nobody was there...

She continued to walk down the hall, constantly checking over her shoulder as if she might just see something creep out behind her. By the time she was on her fourth over the shoulder check, she heard Starfire scream from the floor above.

"Starfire," She thought.

This was it. The thing, the shadow, had finally made it's move on somebody else. Finally, it was her chance to prove that she wasn't crazy. And she wasn't either...**MAYBE**.

She and Starfire met halfway, her friend tackling her in a full body hug. With force like that, Raven would be paralyzed from now until next week...And worse a news yet, this most likely meant that whatever her friend was suffering from, it most certainly wasn't anything of a dark and twisted nature.

"Friend Raven," Starfire squealed. "I have found the most amazing thing!"

"If it has anything to do with the female-"

The discovery of tampons had been a force worse then hell for Raven, whom had to suffer a five hour demonstration on her friend's part--not something that she ever, **ever** wanted to repeat.

"**No**, no!" Starfire squealed. "It is for tonight's party! You wish to see, yes?"

"Umm...Sure?"

Raven walked, deep in thought. Strange how the heaviness of the air had suddenly disappeared...There wasn't even the feeling of somebody standing over her shoulder anymore--weird.

"You look quite jostled." Starfire attempted to repeat a friendly side butt, but that only sent Raven to the floor. "**OH!"**

She said quietly. "**Ouch."**

"Are you alright!? I have not jostled a rib or broken a spinal column have I!? I have heard that it is quite easy to do in humans."

Raven lay with her face on the floor, her head hanging low. It was hard to tell if something was broken, because her whole body had suddenly gotten very, very numb--**OUCH**. _'Note to self,'_ She thought. _'Remind Starfire to never, ever do that again.'_

"My apologies friend," Starfire offered her hand. "I have seen many a friend do that on the television."

"Friends don't usually have strength like you do..." Raven pulled up her hood, sighing as her healing powers took affect. "What is it you're going to show me anyway."

"Just some...dresses."

**_Uh-oh._**

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When she lay in bed that night, she felt shivers all around. She was so cold that she couldn't seem to fall asleep...And whenever she did, she woke up with the bed sheets in a heap on the floor. Was it her? Could she really be going psycho?

It had to be her mind, it had to be. Nobody was in the room with her, not even an animal of any kind. She would be able to sense it if there were. When she sat up out of bed, she peered around the room for about the hundredth time that night.

For the first time in a long time, something had managed to frighten her enough to keep her awake at night...

There was a cool breeze at the back of her neck, and she jerked around, looking desperately for the source.

_Nothing..._

_Absolute darkness..._

She burrowed her head in her hand, wondering what the heck to do next. This wasn't getting her anywhere. At the rate she was going, by the time she went to sleep she would be in a worse a state as Beast Boy and the others that were howling like wolves. With that, she picked up her stuff and waded it in a ball.

Fine, she would just join in the festivities then. She wasn't going because she was scared out of her mind, she was going because she wanted to go...**Heh, yeah right.** Like that was ever the truth.

In her ear, she thought she heard laughter. A deep, throaty kind of laugh...Almost as if somebody was hacking up a lung. Whatever it was, it didn't sound human--not even in the slightest.

"Hello?"She whispered. "Is there...anyone there?"

**IT** came again, louder and more frightening.

"**OKAY**!" With that, Raven raised her hand in warning. "Show yourself."

The nearest bookshelf moaned under the pressure of some unknown force, and book after book tumbled off the shelves. She looked up, alarmed. This had to be her powers manifesting themselves somehow.

"I'm scared." She said allowed, closing her eyes and taking deep breaths. "I'm really scared and I'm not afraid to admit it."

But when she opened her eyes, another book fell off the shelf--a book that was moving on its own accord.

**"UGH!"**

There had to be a logical explanation for this. She admitted that she was frightened, so her powers couldn't be manifesting themselves. Two books had fallen to the floor of there own accord, and it was so cold in the room that she was shaking in her boots. It was midsummer and she was shaking!

She stiffened her shoulders.** "COME OUT!"**

And when the next book fell off the shelf as if on queue, her own powers did exactly what she wanted them **NOT** to do. With a mighty roar, she lost control...For the third time this week. What was she **DOING!?**

"Raven!"

From down the hall, she heard the sound of running feet...**_Uh-oh._**

The door was kicked open, and she jerked around. This wasn't when she wanted them to see her. She was already feeling weak and had begun to question her own sanity--now the other Titan's would begin to wonder as well.

"What's going on, Raven?" Robin stood before him, and on his cheek was a lipstick smudge. "Are you alright!?"

"**RAE!?"**

Even she was taken aback by what she saw: Beast Boy was dressed in drag, completely with hula skirt and a coconut bra. She didn't even want to** KNOW** why the heck he was dressed like that.

"**WHAT HAPPENED**!?" Robin cried, looking at the bookshelf.

"Um." She looked at it, broken hearted as she saw all her books that had been tipped over and crushed at their spines. "I had a...nightmare."

So, what!? She was lying to save herself time. Even she knew for sure that whatever had happened, it hadn't been a dream. It was just that she couldn't let the other team members know what was going on. Last week as breakfast, they had already been whispering about her behind her back. Something like this wasn't the smartest thing to bring up now.

"A nightmare." Beast Boy scuttled forward. "Must have been pretty scary--I haven't seen you freak like that in a long time."

"Yeah," Raven took a step back.

Cyborg chuckled. "She probably dreamed about you in that skirt, BB. That would make** ANYBODY** wet their pj's."

"**SHUT UP, MAN!"**

"**Extreme** truth or dare." Cyborg gave her an apologetic look.

"So," Robin eyed her carefully. "You're okay?"

She lied, "Yes."

_**'...No.** I've never been farther from **'okay,'** she thought._

Beast Boy put both his hands in front of him, whirling out of the room like superman. "Back to the games them!"

**"_WAIT!"_**

Everyone turned around, their eyes on her--good thing she had her hood up, or they all would have been very alarmed by the look she wore on her face. Indeed, it was hard to hid how sickened she felt by the world around her.

"I..." Raven checked over her shoulder. "Maybe I'll come to your little**...thing**, after all."

"**JOYOUS!"**

They walked out of the room, Starfire firing nonstop chatter at Cyborg. Raven made sure her head was down, or else her friends would notice her strange behavior--no way she wanted them to see how she was right now.

"Raven." **Crap**, maybe somebody had noticed. "Are you alright?"

She looked over at Robin, her mouth tight. "Yes. I'm fine. Better then fine--good even."

"**Okay."**

She looked at the floor again, her eyes focusing on the wall behind her. "...That's..."

**"What?"**

From the moment she looked up, she realized that she had made a mistake in saying a word about it. Robin was looking at her with big eyes, his mouth tight. She was ruining this for them--a night that was supposed to be fun. Here she was, acting childish.

"Nothing."

**"RAVEN-"**

She glanced his way. "Drop it, Robin. I'm alright--better then alright, **good** even."

"Now, friends." Starfire stood atop the couch, her hair spiraling behind her like a vail of fire. Just the way her eyes glowed a bright green warned everyone hat something very unpleasant was going to come. "Shall we sing the joyous song of celebration again, since Raven has yet to hear-"

"That's alright Star." Robin said nervously.

"Yeah." Beast Boy smiled. "We wouldn't want-"

Robin shout him a warning look.

"Oh," Beast Boy's smile shrunk several molars. "Right, never mind."

Raven shrunk a little bit in her chair, willing herself to get the chill out of her bones--a chill that seemed to be permanently with her since the very begin. When she looked up and saw her friends curious faces, she did her best to give a small smile--one of which probably looked more like a rather pathetic flinch.

"Friend Raven," Starfire leaned over her and Raven could smell the tropical lotion. "Perhaps you are not feeling quite as well as we thought. Would the medbay be a proper place for you to-"

"**NO."** She snapped. When Starfire looked hurt, she corrected herself. "I mean...No **thank you**."

Truth be told, she wasn't sure what was going on with herself lately. Some little part of her was afraid that she was going truly crazy...No one around her could feel this **THING** stalking them. Certainly, she was sensitive to the** UNKNOWN**, but that didn't mean she was entitled to be delusional.

When Robin brought up a game of truth or dare, she silently groaned. This was not what she bargained for. All she wanted to do was sleep; all she wanted to do was escape from whatever it was that was hunting her down like a overactive predator.

Beast Boy cleared his throat, "I don't think I can get any more...**daring** then I am right now."

_'Thank you, Beast Boy.'_

She blinked as her two eyes grew as heavy as a forty pound weight. It was, after all, four o'clock in the morning. Parties weren't really much her thing either: too many people, too many questions.

"Movie?" Cyborg suggest.

When they started throwing movie selections out in the open, Raven kept her mouth shut. She didn't care what she watched. Truthfully, a big part of her didn't even know what was going on right now. Her mind was as blank as a piece of fresh computer paper.

"**RAE!?"**

She blinked twice as Beast Boy waved a movie in front of her face. It too her a minute to piece together was what going. His mouth contorted over the words, _**'DO YOU WANT TO WATCH THIS MOVIE?'**_

"Whatever."

The moment Beast Boy put it into the recorder, her head lulled to the side. She blinked heavily before her eyes closed: once, twice, three times. Starfire looked in a even worse a state, her head in Robin's shoulder, eyes closed in her contentment. Any minute now she would be snoring.

Beast Boy watched them with a smirk. "This would be the ultimate prank, you know...Starfire is sleeping like a bear in hibernation."

"Yeah." Three heavy blinks later, the television was all black with some ninja fighting screen.

Raven's head lulled forward onto her chest, and she shut her eyes--an overhead clock nearby rang out the time: 5:00. They made it through the night without a wink of sleep. If any villain decided to attack them now, it would be the ultimate time to attack. No way she could get her powers under control as tired as she was.

Beast Boy smirked as Starfire began to snore softly. "You know...Cy..."

"Don't even think about it, BB."

Raven gave a soft sigh, and she felt the world around her begin to fade black. It wasn't until she squirmed throughout her exhaustion induced sleep did she find something warm and comfortable--something so soft that she thought that she could lay curled up against it for the rest of eternity...  
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**No Flaming Please!**


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